Backlash as Elisabeth Moss says The Handmaid's Tale is “not a feminist story”

We’re a mere five days away from the release of the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, one of the year’s most eagerly awaited TV shows.

An adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s bestselling feminist dystopia novel, first published in 1985, it details a bleak American future where women are forced into a life of sexual servitude and surrogacy.

But after months of hype and speculation, Elisabeth Moss, who plays the lead role of Offred, has spoken out against one of our most basic assumptions of the show – by saying the storyline is not a feminist one.

Appearing in a panel for the show at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, Moss was asked whether she considered The Handmaid’s Tale to be feminist in the same way that the role of Peggy Olson, the character she played in Mad Men, was feminist.

“Honestly, for me it’s not a feminist story — it’s a human story, because women’s rights are human rights,” she answered.

“I never intended to play Peggy as a feminist; I never intended to play Offred as a feminist. They’re women and they are humans.”

A still from The Handmaid's Tale

Moss continued to describe Offred as “a wife, a mother, a best friend” and said that her character is “not supposed to be a hero”.